I couldn’t resist one last post with five of the most creative adverts I’ve seen. I really appreciate an advert which is well thought out and shows a true artistic flair. These are some which I feel do that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgOIvmM1-U0

So the end of the semester is upon us and I must bid a sad farewell to UBC and Canada. Its has been an enlightening, challenging and growthful time. It is the end of many an era- Tim Horton coffees to get me through 9 am lecturers (although maybe it was the 30 minute queues which put me on such edge that I was wide awake by the time I actually got to class), free wifi all over campus, snow, and also Movember. I was enthralled to watch this campaign unroll throughout UBC and was surprised at how many ‘mo’s’ I saw during the month. My friend Kim’s blog makes many valid and interesting comments on the campaign, saying it is nice to see a charity campaign like this gaining such wide attention and becoming such a fashionable trend to be part of. This ties in very well with the ethical issues that we dealt with in class this week. Many times people’s morals are compromised by the allure of profits or the threat of losses. However, in situations like Movember, the world has nothing to loose and everything to gain, as Marketers can really get creative with its roll out, knowing that success will lead to a better social good, rather than private profits.

I think this YouTube video by the campaign captures that creativity superbly:

When I think about marketing, I often think of major companies with big goals, complex strategies and formal promotion. But because of this course I’ve seen its far more than that- it applies to everyone and every business- not just those focussed on profits. Before leaving home to come to UBC, I was lucky enough to be part of an organization called Greenpop. It’s an organization that started when founder, Misha Teasdale, wanted to plant 1000 trees in a month to offset his own carbon footprint after doing NGO work throughout Africa. He quickly realized that he would not have the time or money to accomplish this mammoth task within a month, and so had the idea of selling trees for R50 (the equivalent of 7 CAD) to the public, and then planting the trees himself. Each tree that was sold was given a special number, and put onto a GPS map so that each tree-buyer could see where their tree was planted and how it was doing in the months to come.

When I got involved in the project, 1000 trees seemed like a very daunting number, and I often doubted that enough money could be raised out of the blue with no help from any companies or the government. However, Misha proved me wrong time and time again. His enthusiasm for the project was infectious, and, combined with a good marketing strategy, he has been able to inspire many people to be ‘greener’ and has planted far more than the 1000 trees he set out to plant. With an ever-growing army doing plantings, Misha’s little Greenpop venture is well on its way to changing the South African landscape for the better.

Misha’a main lessons to me in the field of marketing have been that little bits go a long way at first, and that marketing is one of the most powerful tools available to any person, firm, idea or initiative. Greenpop started as an online idea- where Misha blogged, tweeted, facebooked and shared as much content as he could about his idea. This was my first personal run in with the powers of social media- Greenpop received so much attention from friends, peers and a wider online community that the Greenpop team were able to start raising awareness in other ways. I liked a classmates blog post on social media, where she says “Facebook, Twitter and their cousins can help build or destroy your brand”. In Greenpop’s case, social media was key to their success, as their finances were non-existent at first. They hosted days called ‘Park Parking’ where astro turf was laid out on a parking space and musicians, artists and the public gathered to raise awareness of sustainability, Greenpop, and its efforts to plant 1000 trees during September.

Greenpop spread its ideas and efforts through many innovative and inspiring ways, such as creating a mural through reverse graffiti (such as the one Tamar talked about in class), where dirt is removed from an old wall to create something both beautiful and beneficial.

All of these projects, although seemingly arbitrary at first, all came together to generate a huge amount of interest in the campaign. While part of the Greenpop team I realized that all it takes for a company to be successful is motivation and good marketing. With enthusiasm you can continually generate interest in the public through diverse and stimulating media. Greenpop has used events such as music concerts which it has hosted, made many YouTube videos, organized a green crusade, where people took to the streets on bikes, skateboards and anything which did not emit carbon, wearing Greenpop cloaks, all the while keeping its online personality alive and interesting.

I think the reason Greenopo has gone from strength to strength, planting way over 1000 trees in September, and now continuing into a formal NGO which plants trees in under greened areas, is because not only has its marketing communication been varied, interesting and up-to-date, but it has had a unified approach to its communications right from the start- with clarity and integration being key to all of its branding.

Never again will I doubt what a seemingly anonymous idea can become with a little bit of good marketing – Greenpop now has almost 1500 ‘likes’ on Facebook and is still gaining momentum. Greenpop is a tangible suggestion of what will soon be a global necessity – inspired community projects driven by environmental concern and goodwill. It is also an inspiring example of the powers of communication and marketing.

I was very inspired by a phrase I saw quoted on my favourite marketing blogger’s site. Its said “Usage is like oxygen for ideas.” Originally written in a post by Matt Mullenweg on his blog page called Matt, unlucky in Cards, in which he discusses how you can never fully anticipate how an audience is going to react to an idea until it has been released to the public. In his words, this means that every moment you’re working on something without it being in the public it’s actually dying, deprived of the oxygen of the real world. This quote was on Seth’s Blog, my favourite marketing blogger, and one of the most popular on the internet today. The quote tied in with his post about where ideas come from, which I think is something enormously interesting to read. I often think about it when I need to find creativity for something in my life – be it an essay, some other school work or something recreational. This is an excerpt from the post (the full version you can see on Seths’ Blog).

I think the joys of social media are that communication channels are open to everyone these days, and that there is no excuse not to be vocal and active with your ideas with the greater online community. Social media removes the limitations that traditional, institutionalized media create, and so has a tendency to provoke change; whereas traditional media has a latent tendency toward the status quo. Now is a great time to be living and working because, as technology develops, so the limitations placed on society are becoming thinner and more whimsical. Now is when we truly are becoming capitalistic (in the good sense of the word) because now we can all specialize, promote ourselves without help of authority and have no one but ourselves to blame were our ideas to fade unnoticed into the abyss of cyber space. To end this post, I thought it was interesting to post a video by Common Craft (the Plain English video guys) on what social media actually is. I think everyone today has some idea of what social media is, but hearing a concise version of its scope helped me understand it’s influence better.

This is an old advertising campaign which started due to the rivalry between Audi and BMW. Both car companies, although similar in many respects, target different consumers by employing different marketing mixes. Both companies appeal to consumers wanting semi- luxury or luxury vehicles, but strive to create different brands and status through their marketing mix and so gain a strong position in their target market’s mind. Subaru, on the other hand, has created an image of durability and strength, rather than status. Although it was not involved in the close rivalry between BMW and Audi, it was able to use the competition as a way to strengthen its brand image. The chain of adverts ended when Bentley produced an advert which mocked the efforts of all the other car companies involved. It said to the world that Bentley did not need to flaunt its attributes, as it was better than anything that the other cars offered. I think the advert is humorous, well placed and well timed. It showed Bentley’s competition to be childish in their efforts to outplay each other, and solidified the “I don’t care” attitude that Bentley emanates. I like it a lot.

A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.

– Richard Branson

More and more often I am seeing companies using games as strategies to encourage user participation with their product or service. This fun element to a brand ultimately results in  sales and greatly increased awareness of a brands. I often think about something I heard in my first year of university, from a MBA guest lecturer in one of my classes. He said that, in our modern times of information overload and brand saturation, it was those brands that offered something free to their customers (or would-be customers) that gained competitive advantage. This ‘free’ could be anything- from a free song download every time you visited their website, to a free service like gmail. Its addition to the brand’s marketing strategy would help create loyalty, market share and, hopefully, long run competitive advantage.

I recently heard that Nike was employing such a strategy, where it was launching a free game called ‘The Grid’.

In the game, Nike has created a city-wide scavenger hunt using public telephone booths. It is an interactive game which aims at engaging urban residence in a sports quest- all in the name of fun (and also Nike).

The game will first be played in London, with the city divided into 48 zip codes. Each of these areas has four traditional phone boxes. Players in the game must run from one spot to another within the zone, using public telephones as their start and finish points. Players start by finding a telephone box, dialing a specific number, entering their unique identifier number, and then following the instructions they’re given, which will send them to other phone boxes in the city. The more routes they run, the more points they score.

Not only does this competition encourage urban residents to be active, it also creates a brand awareness that stems from a fun idea. People who hear about the competition will (hopefully) associate Nike with fun, being active and relevant to today’s culture. It will also link the brand with customer loyalty through the use of a ‘give-a-little-gain-a-lot” attitude. I think its a great idea.

I found my classmate, Michael Buchan’s blog post about Nike very interesting. In his post, Michael talks about the the interesting approach Nike has taken with its James versus Jordan commercial. The commercials tackle the dislike that Lebron James caused when he chose to sign with Miami Heat rather than the Cleavland Cavaliers, which he had played with for the last 11 years. Instead of ignoring the public’s negative reaction to this move, Nike came up with a complex advertising campaign to explain James’ motives. By doing this Nike has successfully created a situation where they don’t lose any business due to peoples personal opinions about Lebron James and therefore Nike continues to succeed. Like Michael, I think this is yet another example of Nike’s marketing brilliance.

“Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.”

– Mark Twain

McDonalds- what does it make you think of? For some people comfort, for others convenience, for me I think of too much fat and horrible neon lighting. This is why I was completely astounded to hear that McDonalds will soon be hosting weddings at their fast-food outlets. Kong Kong will be the first city in the world to host these ‘take-away’ nuptial packages starting early next year.

Why would anyone want to host their wedding at the quintessential image of consumerism and superficiality? Well the wedding package is designed to attract either those who choose not to follow traditional wedding protocol, or those who absolutely love the restaurant. For them the idea of a McDonald’s baked apple pie wedding cake (which consists of single-portion take out boxes stacked one on top of another), and a special wedding dress made out of party balloons is appealing.

By hosting weddings, McDonalds is diversifying its product mix, and extending its product line of events that can be hosted at the restaurants. The question is, how successful will these wedding packages be? Will people continue to make use of them as cheap and fun ways of saying their vows, or will they be a fad that will pass quickly once the publicity hype is over? We will have to wait for January next year to se the public’s reaction.

At the beginning of the week I got a message from a friend in South Africa who had been studying in the library until 10 pm. On their way out they came across a band of lively, loud Red Bull promotors who were handing out free samples of the new Red Bull product line, the ‘Red Bull Energy Shot” to all students entering the building to study. The shot is being advertised as perfect for when you need a portable pick-me-up in a sip such as before a workout, in the middle of a meeting or while on the road.  It is only 2 ounces and so can be swallowed in one gulp but contains the same functional ingredients as its larger sibling. A smart promotion I think. What better way to reach its target market but to advertise where energy and motivation are so in demand, and where there are so many of the correct target market in one place at the same time?

This is not the first time that I have been impressed with the Red Bull marketing campaign (although the ethics of this and some other promotions are often slightly suspect). They employ a marketing strategy that seems to follow an idea that the more apparent the brand is the better. At almost every concert, club, university activity, and sometimes even private parties there seems to be at least one beautiful person handing out free Red Bulls. These promotors are always friendly, pretty and very enthusiastic about their product. I had a friend who used to work for them as a promo girl and they gave her a Mini Cooper that was branded in Red Bull images and colours while she was employed by the company. Another smart promotional idea I think. When people see the car driving around, they see the beautiful girl who truly loves the company (who loaned her a great car) having fun. This, although a more subtle technique than handing out free samples to stressed out students, creates a very strong base of aspiration in many of its target consumers. They want to be like the girl diving the Mini, or the guy driving the Red Bull jeep.

Although Red Bull advertising often verges on the aggressive, I certainly feel that they have created one of the strongest brand images of today. So cheers to another long night of studying, I sure will have my shot of Red Bull handy next time I know its going to be an all-nighter!

I have never really thought about what positioning means– I hear the word thrown around in business conversations and blogs, lectures and adverts, but I just always assumed it meant the actual physical position of a product. Lightbulb moment of note when Tamar explained its actual meaning in class this week- positioning is not a physical concept but rather something far more important and esoteric. Positioning refers to the real estate that a product occupies in a consumers mind relative to the position of all the competitors’ products.

Positioning is at the very heart of marketing because if you do not know what position you occupy in a consumer’s mind then your advertising strategy might be completely off target. Positioning determines what type of strategy the company pursues.

The first authors to clearly define and discuss the subject were Al Ries and Jack Trout in the book Battle for Your Mind.

In the beginning, positioning was more about cutting through the ambient “noise” of modern society’s overload of brands. It is now more focussed on a brand’s position in relation to competitors products. In the classic example of Avis claiming “No.2, We Try Harder”, the point was to be open about the fact that they occupied the second position in the market and to actually embrace this position and use it as a means to get through to their customers.

Positioning differs from re-positioning, as re-postioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products.  De-positioning, on the other hand, involves changing the identity of competing products, relative to the identity of your own product.

One of my favourite quotes about sustainability is that of the title of this blog. Moving from a fairly third- world country to a strongly first-world country it is more evident than ever- going green is a social trend that only the wealthy can afford. In Africa, marketing channels seem to based chiefly on the “cheaper good, better value” variety; whereas here ‘green’ seems to take centre stage.

When I first saw the Prius Harmony advert I was intrigued by the images of the people dressed up as plants. At first I didn’t even realize they were people. I think the advert is well directed, with a catchy sound track, as well vibrant colours. It definitely captures a psychological need which I see evident in many of the Canadians I’m surrounded by- that of a lifestyle that tries to tread lightly on our plant.

In South Africa the Prius has hardly entered the market, mainly due to its high price. Here however, as in all of North America,the Prius is in high demand. It is quite evident that the difference between the success rate of the hybrid in South Africa as opposed to Canada is due to the fact that people here are willing to pay extra as long as it allows them to associate with the’ eco-friendly’ image. Many say the success of the Prius over other hybrid cars is because everyone driving a hybrid wants everyone else to know they are driving a hybrid.The Prius is one of the only hybrids which was built as a hybrid from its beginning, whereas the other hybrids of today started off as regular cars. In this sense the Prius has become a fashion accessory image  like the rubber “issue bracelets” in yellow and other colours. It shows the world that you care.

At the end of the day,I can only but smile because what could be better than something that is good for the world becoming a fashion item! It does its own advertising without the neediness of most charitable organizations/products. It has positive externalities in the sense that the more people seen with the item, the more others want to be seen with the item, and the world, through its own consumer- driven nature actually does something for the good of all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq4nrmnqY9o